St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-07-21
WIPED OUT BY A CYCLoNE.
Boston Mans Adventure i'm the WOOL,
West.

boston MANS Adventure I'm the WO0liy
West.
Stepping upon Boston Shawmut
avenue horse car a few days since,
says writer in the. Youths Compan-
ion, was surprised to recognize in the
conductor an old acquaintance, who, /
supposed, was herding sheep in the far
Northwest.
"Why, Brown, yon here !" 1 exclaim-
ed. Elbows this ? Where are your
sheep 2"
any sheep left me-" said he-with a
jerk at the fare indicator.
''Sold out z" | inquired.
."NO; got jumped"
dumped what jumped you 2" 1
asked.
"Well, you see it was about like
this" replied my friend, and, as we
trundled on down past Dover street,
he gave me the following account of
his western experience: "YOu were
out there two years ago." he said, "and
remember how | was located"
| remember very well, for | had
thought then that he had a model
sheep range for small one it was in
southwestern Dakota on a good stream
of water, and had at the southeast of
it fine tract of pine and cotton wood
timber.
"Well, was doing very we'll, as
you know, and in June last had 240
ewes with their lambs; just a salts
factory little bunch, as you may sup
pose. l looked after them carefully
every day to keep off the coyotes; in
fact didn't often allow them to pass
from under my eye when | was out on
the range. Besides this l built up a
good corral for them at night down in
the edge of the timber.
zone afternoon, about the Goth of
the month, | was sitting on some rocks
watching them. 1t had been sultry,
with the sun scorching hot in the fore
noon, and the sheep had kept in the
shade of the timber through the mid
die of the day, till early in the after
noon, when they all streamed out of
the bushes, and began to feed up the
slope towards where l sat, with a big
green umbrella set up over me, as
shelter from the sun.
''Sheep, when they are feeding, as
you know, generally keep together,
and | should think that at this time,
mine were, most of them, on plot of
not much more than an acre of ground;
but they were coming up the slope at
quite a good pace for animals feeding.
"The sky was clear, though just n
trifie hazy; but by and by | noticed
bit of cloud in the northwest that
seemed to me to be behaving in sim
gular way. 1t appeared to move with
kind of spasmOdic motion.
81 noticed, too, that it was rapidly
growing longer, and that it seemed to
shift from dark to light green hue.
81 watched it closely, for surmised
from it's appearance that there was
some kind of a tornado coming, and
Immediately after noticed that there
was a sort of sleeve or funnel-shaped
trunk, hanging down from it toward
the ground.
"The view to nOrthward from where
sat was good one, and l could see
the cloud coming a number of miles
off. The sleeve or trunk conducted
itself in singular manner. First it
would appear to give little switch,
or dab down at the ground, then it
would start up again as if to take a
look at what it had done, and get
ready for another stroke at the objects
below, and with every stroke could
see brown cloud of dust, grass, brush
and timber rise into the air, and 60
whirling up into the sky; this hang
ing cylinder or trunk was black color
ed, and seemed to be whirling around
as it danced along.
''By the time it was within a mile
and a half from me, L felt sure that it
was coming in the direction in which
sat, and l could hear kind of whiz-
zing, roaring noise.
"The sheep heard it, too. They
stopped feeding, looked up, and then
began to huddle together. But l did
not stop to watch them long L was
busy thinking which way | had better
run.
"There was quite a deep chink or
hole down between two of the rocks
where | was sitting. l shut my big
umbrella, dropped down into this
chink, stretched out full length, and
laid the umbrella over the opening in
the rocks into which l had placed my
self, for | concluded that it would not
be very likely to tear those big rocks.
"I had hardly more than placed my
self there when it grew dark as night,
and the whizzing, roaring noise became
loud as thunder | dug my nails into
the crevices of the stones and held on
and then, whish the tornado went
over me with roaring shrek, IA rattle,
a shower of stones and dirt, and L felt
as if the whole ground about me was
lifted into the air. This did not last
more than half a minute; perhaps not
so long as that. | got up out of the
crevice, and, as soon as L could see for
dust, looked around for my bunch of
sheen. [ saw two of them 300 or 400
yards off to the left, running as if a
panther was after them another one,
a lamb, lay kicking little nearer me.
Those were all that could see.
81 ran down to the corral, and there
found two of the sheep, one with a
broken leg they must have blown in
to it, over the eight-fOOt fence, for |
had turned them all out in the morn
ing.
"Then 1 began looking farther on
through the timber, and, sir, had not
gone far, when [ saw a sheep up 25 or
30 feet from the ground in the top of a
pine tree-lodged there
ga little farther on [ came upon one
lying with a broken back on the
ground, and shortly after | saw anoth-
er, lodged high up in the crotch of a
big cotton wood.
"And so l went on, looking for my
sheep in the trees. Before night l /
found fifteen, nine of them dead on the
ground, and six up in the tree tops
some of these latter still kicking to get
free.
"That was all / ever found of the
whole bunch in fact, l was so dis
gusted with my il-luck that did not
ook much farther, for L knew it was
Of no use. That tornado had COM
Oletalv wined me- ont